In January, I wrote a blog giving some information about my training volume in 2012. It’s funny to reread that blog, because I concluded telling that I should spend more hours training and resting to achieve my goals. Of those goals that I made for 2013, I only achieved the most important one: a successful defense of my age group world champion title. And guess what!! I didn’t train more than last year…

Between the day after Ironman Hawaii 2012 and the day before Ironman Hawaii 2013, I swam 140,75 hrs, I cycled 430,75 hours and I ran 129,75 hrs (twice achillestendinitis for more than a month, but that injury is completely under control now!!). Add these numbers and divide by 52 (more or less the number of weeks in a year), gives an average weekly training volume of 13,5 hrs. This is what happens if you have some “0” weeks due to sickness or exams.

So, I think that I can repeat my conclusions of last year.

Firstly, I’ve been efficient in my training and I have achieved a good performance/effort ratio (for IM Hawaii at least).

Secondly, intensity at the right moments and periodization in the year are very important. Fortunately, I don’t have to know anything about those things. My coach does and I have 100% confidence in his workout schedules!

And thirdly, there is still a large marge in training volume, especially for the run.

I’m not happy or proud with these training volumes at all. I love working out and I love those weeks with regular training, healthy living and the feeling of getting in shape. But I also know how difficult 2013 has been, and I don’t think I can blame myself anything.

The attentive reader might have noticed that last year I counted the calendar year and this year I took a Hawaii to Hawaii year. The thing is that the last few weeks I have had more time and more motivation to train. So I have been training more than my weekly average last year, even in November! My next blog (in two weeks, I think) will be about the reason for the extra time and motivation. So, be patient! I’ll keep you posted :-).